A career in dental hygiene puts you in a position to help others while working in a growing, lucrative field. Working as an oral healthcare professional is a great choice for many reasons, but it’s not for everyone. Before spending the money, time and effort to become a registered dental hygienist (RDH), it’s important to know as much as possible about the job. Here are a few things to...

Can dental offices classify dental hygienists as independent contractors, instead of as employees? There’s no shortage of people willing to offer opinions on the matter—practice owners, hygienists, teachers, consultants. Often, they all fall into one of two camps.

Some will tell you that a dental office is completely within its rights to treat you as an independent contractor, if that’s what...

It is recommended to enroll in an accredited dental assisting course as the best choice of action to pursue a career as a dental assistant. The more professional the training and education, the better the opportunity to land a good job.

In the general dental practice,the dental assistant must have the necessary skills that include using four-handed dentistry techniques. The term four-handed dentistry describes the seated dentist and the chair-side assistant working in harmony as an efficient team. On direct demand from the doctor, the assistant will pass the correct dental instruments, mix types of cement and impression materials when needed all while making sure the field of vision is kept clear for the dentist to see and to work.

The dental assistant profession has its ups and downs. Thus, if you intend to join this career path soon, it is good to understand what awaits you, especially in regards to the work environment you will be operating in and the responsibilities involved.

After completing an accredited course in dental assisting from a local community college or technical college you may feel you are ready to embark upon your new career as a dental assistant. You will quickly learn that this is just a small step into your new world. It is often said that experience is the best teacher and in dental assisting each patient encounter will teach the dental assistant something new.

One great perk of living in North America is access to a wide variety of health-related services. Dental care comprises a large portion of the healthcare sector, and in this domain lie many roles to fill.

Dental hygienist and dental assistant jobs are about more than just assisting the dentist; these professionals focus on helping people. That may be one reason these careers (and others, such as dental nursing) are so popular—those who work in dentistry are true helpers. Of course, to really make a difference, you need a job.

It seems like every industry has been making a shift toward agile employment. This shift is a response to economic conditions, a sharing-economy culture and the preferences of the newest generation of workers. Business owners know the importance of keeping up, and dentistry is no different. That’s why dental practice owners are looking to new tools to increase agility in their employment practices.

Remember rides before Uber and Lyft? Rooms before Vrbo and Airbnb? Food delivery before DoorDash and GrubHub? There’s no denying that these tech-centered platforms have touched many industries, assisting us in several aspects of our lives. Connecting resources with those who need them is an old concept (think job placement agencies and classified ads). But in recent years, cloud-based technology has made it possible to form those connections in real time.